2014 TDF - HOLME MOSS LAND AVAILABLE

OK so a mate of mine has a large amount of land right at the side of the road at Holme Moss, the biggest UK climb of the 2014 TDF. He wants me to get involved with letting it off, organising catering, camping, bike lockups, corporate entertainment etc.

It's only early days yet but what sort of stuff would you want to see there if you were planning to travel there to see the event ?

Apparently the road will be closed from around 8AM to 5PM so it's either get there the day before or very early on the day.

I'm thinking secure bike storage for some of it - if I was travelling there it'd be by bike. £15 a pop for the day ?

If you want to make monpey then selling burgers to people on bikes is a long shot. What most will do is ignore the £15 storage and sit with their bike or worse sit on the other side of the road.
If you want something to cover the costs then food vans, toilets and some bike racks might work.

If you can swing a corporate thing then you probably want to get it over to someone professional who can organise it and know how to sell it - also the sort of people who will pay £15 for bike parking to sit in a yorkshire summer in their sky kit are not the sort who will ride there. You will probably need to coordinate with parking somewhere else and get a fleet of shuttle buses.

Is £15 really out of the way for someone to look after your bike for the day ? I'd be happy to ride the 40 or so miles to get there then give someone £15 to keep an eye on my ride for the day. And I'm a Yorkshireman

The £15 might not be too much but look at how most do it on the TdF. On top of your £15 I would expect the food will be £5/something and £3/coffee etc so looks expensive You probably need to cost out the things and look at how much the average will spend and how much you will see out of it. Then factor in fencing, rubbish collection, cleaning up, damage, security, etc.

If you want to offer anything corporate you will need some exclusivity (more fencing/security/better offerings)

Not wanting to sound negative but just throwing in some realism. If you want to get some corporate stuff (marquee/stand/meal etc.) you probably need to be selling it now to get an idea of what you can do, get a couple of ex pro's out there to do a lunch speech and meet/greet/photo op. Then some TV's to watch the race upcoming and the finish. Add in some transport there/back and some parking and you can probably do something though worth checking with council/tdf/corp hospitality they might be better as someone with a track record might make you an offer for a part of the site and take the hassle/risk away from you. It's going to be a lot of thursday nights drinking champagne & eating canapes if it goes wrong.

I don't see much like this roadside in France, it's only to see the peloton fly past once, I can't see it raising much net of costs.

Open it for parking, rent some space to food vans. Rent some pitches for camps. You'll need staff and toilet facilities etc, is there any drinking water on site ? Corporate entertainment, surely that's going to be based in Leeds or other big cities at start or finish not in a field where you are marooned from the night before till the end of the day.

For Olympics they had a big temporary campsite at box hill, catering vans and mobile bars. There where 2 races men's and ladies and the men did 8 odd laps so plenty to see. Most cyclists rode in and stood next to their bikes. After the roads were closed they walked along the pavement like all the other pedestrians

No need for apologies mate, all input appreciated. Its a good point regarding most likely locations for corporate, but this is the biggest climb of the tour, so probably the slowest section, with great views of the road winding upward. It should be fairly well sought after if we split it up correctly. Hard to know where to start as no lessons learnt yet.

It might me worth getting in touch with Kirklees Council to discuss the logistics of using the land. Bear in mind that it's going to be inaccessible to vehicles for the day of the event, so that'll restrict what you can do with it.
Setting up some sort corporate thing won't work if the corporate types can't drive in and park up.
I'd be thinking along the lines of running it as a basic campsite - there are going to be a lot of people wanting to overnight on the hill to get a good viewpoint on raceday. Get some catering and a beer tent sorted out for the weekend and watch the money come in

Corporate stuff will be at the start and finish where they can meet the riders before/after. It may be the biggest hill in the UK stages but in the greater scheme of things it's a pimple and isn't going to slow them down that much that it becomes a spectating hotspot and it doesn't have the prestige of a mountain. I'd suggest pitching at the general punter so parking and food (charge caterers for using the site?).

Advertising hoardings. Low hassle. Potentially lucrative if it's in the right place.

Or think outside the box a bit, partner up with a bike brand, give them an opportunity to set up some sort of complimentary hospitality centre for cycling spectators - coffee, service centre, product display, video entertainment - there's going to be a lot of sitting about waiting.

I'm guessing the land's going to be quite low down as otherwise it'll be a precipitous slice of moorland hummockry dotted with sheep.

I cheerfully forecast a 2014 sportive explosion all over Holme Moss and a lot of very frightened cyclists mixing it with the horror traffic on the Woodhead.

Corporate entertainment, surely that's going to be based in Leeds or other big cities at start or finish not in a field where you are marooned from the night before till the end of the day.

^this

If you've not already done so, check with the council (or whoever) when the road is going to be closed from and to. There's little point creating a car park if no cars will be allowed to get to it. The adventurous types who might camp overnight are probably the same type who would be happy to walk or ride in, so my gut feeling is that providing camping might not be worth the effort of providing running water and toilets.

I reckon food and drink is where you might be able to make some money if the Holme Moss burger van market is not already saturated for July 2014.